The thing is that Jesus did perform the miracle, but he didn’t feed the five thousand. You may be thinking here; Andrew you’re just being a bit silly about this. But for Jesus disciples this was one of those great learning moments. The disciples rock up with a problem and Jesus says we'll solve it, “you give them something to eat.” I found in my education the best teachers always asked you to answer your own question!
It’s interesting here that Jesus, The Word of God, The Bread of Life, not only has the answer, he provides the solution. I do wonder if he was thinking come on boys you can do this, “You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” (John 14:13-14).
My first point here however is a hands on application, the small boy may have supplied the original food, Jesus preformed the miracle of the food multiplication, but without the trust they had in Jesus and the hands on service of the food distribution by the disciples, the five thousand would have gone hungry.
Not only that, the word used by Jesus, “something” in Greek, “tis” is in it’s most common usage used as; why? what? which? and who?, it is only used twice in scripture as something. When the disciples say these people need a feed, it’s like Jesus is saying “well what are you going to give them?” or may be even, “you see the problem provide a solution, provide something for them to eat.”